Former PM Malcolm Fraser dies at 84

Tributes continue to flow for former prime minister Malcolm Fraser, who died on Friday at the age of 84 after a short illness.

The former Liberal prime minister, who served from 1975 to 1983, restored economically responsible government while recognising social change, prime minister Tony Abbott said.

Mr Abbott said Mr Fraser had held true to the belief that his actions at the time of the dismissal were in the best interests of Australia.

"The greatest win in Australian political history confirms that he had correctly read the mood of the public," he said of Mr Fraser's landslide election win after Mr Whitlam's 1975 dismissal.

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill on Friday night also paid tribute to Mr Fraser for his role in the economic development of Australia's closest neighbour.

"Mr Fraser was not only a significant Australian Leader, but had a commitment to facilitating economic and social development in the Pacific that will always be remembered with great appreciation," Mr O'Neill said.

"The new nation of Papua New Guinea benefited enormously from the generous support arrangement that the Fraser government provided to our people."

In paying tribute to Mr Fraser, former Labor prime minister Paul Keating said the constitutional crisis of 1975 had rewritten the rule book of Australian public life, while former prime minister Julia Gillard said his death closed a chapter of political history.